Part Two of Critical Mass Effect

In the last entry, I highlighted the most egregious problems of Mass Effect. But the fact remains that I’ve played it to completion twice, when I don’t manage to complete most of the games I start. Clearly, it’s doing something right. To round out my coverage of the first Mass Effect, I’ll take a stab at explaining […]

Part One of Critical Mass Effect

Welcome to the first real entry in Critical Mass Effect, a compendium of articles that will poke and prod at all the design decisions that make up the Mass Effect trilogy.This will not be comprehensive; as much as anything, I hope that this can start a conversation about Bioware and the choices they make.

A Special Presentation from Critical Mass Effect

Author’s Note: This is the first entry in Critical Mass Effect, a compendium of articles on Bioware’s ambitious, troubled space opera trilogy. The next two entries will focus on everything wrong and right in the series’ first entry, but my contempt for that game’s sidequests needed an entry of its own.

Mind you, this is how nine out of ten retrospectives begin, but this is an extreme example. Back when digital gaming libraries were starting to get established, I cataloged my collection over at Gamespot. It had a feature that let you see how many other people […]

I have no idea if I’m going to get Diablo III – I’m tempted not to just because of Blizzard’s fuck-you attitude to single player gamers – but it’s made me hunger for Diablo II, which I played in 2000 but never got around to finishing. I traded for a copy of the Battle Chest, […]